In a boost to the government’s disinvestment programme, stake sale offers in Neyveli Lignite Corporation, State Trading Corporation (STC) and ITDC, on Friday, got fully subscribed, garnering Rs.395 crore for the exchequer. The 3.56 per cent stake sale in NLC fetched Rs.360 crore to the exchequer with all of the shares being picked up by five Tamil Nadu government firms.
Besides, the sale of 5 per cent stake, or 42.88 lakh shares, in ITDC fetched over Rs.30 crore. Another Rs.4.54 crore came in from STC disinvestment of 1.02 per cent, or 6.13 lakh shares. The stake sale would now make the three PSUs compliant to the minimum 10 per cent public holding norm of market regulator SEBI. Post-stake sale, the government’s holding in the PSUs has come down to 90 per cent.
The stake sale in STC got over-subscribed 1.13 times with bids coming in for over 6.90 lakh shares, against 6.13 lakh shares on offer. However, the ITDC disinvestment scraped through with the issue getting bids for 46.71 lakh shares or 1.09 times of the 42.88 lakh shares on offer. The base price for ITDC and STC were Rs.70 and Rs.74 a share, respectively.
